Locomotive stoker



March 22, l932. T. w. BENNETT LocoMoTIvE sToKER Filed Sept. 2].. 1926v 2 Sheets-Sheet l y T. W. BENNETT LOCOMOTIVE STOKER Mach 22, 1932.

Filed sept. 21, v1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 fulfen'tar a/zas @Kga/mdf Omlys Patentea Mai. 22, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT orFlcE THOMAS W. IBIEllNlTETT,A OF PITTSBURGH,

PENNSYLVANlA, ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE AS- SIGNMENTS, T THE STANDARD STOKEB COMPANY INC., 0F NEW YORK, N. Y., A

- V(IOLRJEOIELATN 0F :DELAWARE LOCOMOTIVE STORIE Application led'september 21, 1926. Serial No. 136,804.

This invention relates to Stoker mechanism, and more particularly to Stoker mechanism for railway locomotives.

One of the objects provision of new and improved mechanism and arrangement thereof for reducing the fuel to proper size and delivering `the same` to the firebox of the locomotive.V

Another object of the invention is the provision of a new and improved fuel crusher mechanism for stokers ,that is cheap to manufacture, simple and ecientr in operation, readily .assembled and that requires a minimum of power for opcerating the same.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the.follow.

ing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a i portion of a locomotive and its tender showing the invention in position thereon, with parts broken away r Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. .3 is a perspective view of one of the auxiliary Crushers.

On the drawingsthe. reference character 10 designates a locomotive provided with the firebox-ll'having. the back wall 12 thereof provided with one or more openings 13` through which fuel is delivered to the iirebox of the locomotive. The tender for the locomotive is shown at 14 and is of the Iusual or any well known construction. The bottom wall of the tender is provided with an elongated-opening 15, each side edge' of which is provided with .a groove 16 in which is slidably mounted the slide, plates 17. The plates 17 are adapted to be slid forwardly progressively one or more at a'time in order to adjust the position of the o pen ing whereby the fuel may flow by gravity n from thestender, in the usual manner.

A coveyor member' or casing 18 having .45 its rear .end in the form of a trough located ofthe invention is the rugged in construction,`

beneath said opening is employed for conveying the fuel from the tender to the locomotive.

The conveyor support 20 is located adjacent to the center of gravity of the conveyor whereby the tender will support the weight of the conveyor, thus relieving the locomotive of this additional weight.

The conveyor casing 18` is provided with a suitable means, as the conveyor screw 23, for conveying the fuel along said casing. The screw is operated from the engine 25V through the gears 26 by a suitable shaft in the usual manner.

Suitable means are provided for elevating the'fuel and delivering the same to the firebox of the locomotive. This means comprises one or more elevatorcasings 29, dependin 0n thetype of elevator mechanism employe that shown being of the type in which two elevator casings are employed.. The lower portion of the casingI of theelevatormechanism is provided with a rearward extension or conduit-32 in which the forward end of the conveyor casing 18 is pivotally mounted, the end of the conveyor being provided with a ring 33 convex on its outer surface and forming a ball or universal joint with said extension. The parts are held in assembled relation by a pin 34. The parts thusdescribed are of the usual`construction, well understood in the art, and need not be fu er described. f l,

W29 extend upwardly andy forv `the forward end of the tender.

` trough but they forward portion 48.

advance of the intermediate the tender to the locomotive, a single crusher 44 is employed and it is located adjacent to This arrangement is suiiicient so long as the fuel is delivered into the fuel trough of the conveyor at a point adjacent to the crusher. When the fuel in the forward end of the tender has been used and the plates 17 have been moved forwardly to shift the opening 15, through which the fuel is supplied, rearwardly, considerably force is necessary to move the lumps of fuel forwardly beneath said plates, due to the jamming of the same against the plates. It has been proposed to employ a plurality of retarder bars extending over the are objectionable because they check the How of fuel to a material eX- tent, causing the same to accumulate in front of the bars, to boil up and to become jammed against the underside of the plates, thus serlously hindering the flow of fuel along said trough.

It has been found by experiment that if crusher means be provided for crushing the fuel immediately after it falls into the trough the same is reduced to such sizes that it does not jam but is moved easily and smoothly along said conveyor. In other words, by the use of means for crushing the fuel immediately after it falls into the conveyor, the power expended in operating the Stoker mechanism remains substantially constant even when the fuel is supplied to the conveyor at the rear end thereof.

In order to take advantage of this principle, a plurality of crushers are employed for crushing the fuel. This is considered an important feature of this invention. As shown,

two auxiliary crushers 45 and 46 are used in addition to the conventional type of crusher 44.` Each of the crushers 45 and 46 is curved to form an arch over the cpnveyor screw and has its ends rigidly secured to the sides of the trough, see Figs. 2 and 3. The crusher is flared or conical and the rear edge is arranged at an angle to the axis of the conveyor as shown in Fig. 3. The rear edges and inner surfaces of the crushers are provided with teeth'30 for cooperating with the fiights of the screw for reducing the fuel.

The fuel is progressively reduced as it is moved along the conveyor trough. Preferably, though not necessarily, this is accom-- p lished by having the crushers all of the same size and employing a conveyor screw having its rear portion 47 of less diameter than the As shown, the rear portion 47 of the screw terminates slightly in crusher 46 whereby when the opening 15 is located at the rear of the tender, as it is when the tender is nearly empty, and as shown in Fig. 1, the fuel is partially reduced by the crusher 45 and reduced still further by the crusher 46.

en the opening l5 is at the front of the tender the fuel is reduced to proper size by the crusher 44 in the usual manner. When the parts are in the position sho the crusher 44 merely acts asa sizer the fuel that has passed through wn in 1, to re uce thel other crusher or crushers to a more nearly uniform SlZe.

The-widths of the plates 17 are such that the edges of those immediately above the crushers are located adjacent to the plane of what for convenience will be termed the forward or advance edge of the crusher, whereby through the same' by the con Should the fuel veyor screw.

for any reason become jammed and boil up in front of the crusher the opening will permit it to rise into thev Furthermore,

tender. by this arrangement the uncrushed fuel will have a minimum distance to travel in the encountering one of sired arrangement 1s to conveyor trough before the crushers.

The deprovidea plurality of crushers so that the fuel will be crushed immediately trough, in order to avoid cloggin size lumps in the trough or the nthe s ameagainst the plates.

In the operation of the devic after it reaches the conveyor g of the overjamming of e, the boards or plates 17 are adjusted to permit the fuel to flow by is carried forwardly. size by one or more of on the position of the opening 1 upwardly through the elevator the distributor member from gravity into the trough.I The fuel reduced to the proper the crushers depending 5, and forced caslngs onto whence 1t 1s projected into the firebox by steam blasts in the usual manner.

It is thought from the foregoing taken in connection with thlaccompanying drawings that the constructa and operation of my device will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and that various changes in size, shape, proportion and details of construction may be made without departing fromv the spirit and scope of the appended claims. l

I claim as my invention:

In a locomotive stoker mechanism, a

conveyor conduit, a conveyor screw of greater diameter at its forward than at end within said conduit,

its rearward and a plurality of crusher members forming arches over said screw said members being being provided with crusher tee veyor screw in said member, sai

fuel through said conveyor duplicates and each n a stoker, a conveyor member, a cond screw comtion being of uniform capacity throughout its length, and a fuel crusher for each of said sections, said crushers being disp tially the same distance from th screw and `so arrangedthat the s osed substane axis of said' pace between lll each crusher and its respective screw section will progressively diminish toward the forward end of said conveyor member, whereby fuel advanced by said screw will be progressively reduced.

3. In a Stoker, a conveyor member, a conveyor screw in said member, said screw comprising sections of progressively increasing diameters toward the direction of the flow of fuel through said conveyor member, each section being of uniform diameter throughout its length, and a fuel crusher foreach ofsaid sections for progressively reducing said fuel, said Crushers being substantial duplicates.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

THOMAS W. BENNETT. 

